It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas
by ScottishLaura
Summary: Lori had intended to spend Christmas day alone, watching a dodgy TV movie.  But Steve had other ideas.   This was going to be a drabble at first, but ended up slightly differently - a present of sorts for the McWeston fans out there. Merry Christmas, all!


**AN: MERRY CHRISTMAS GUYS! This is a little Christmas present for all the McWeston fans out there. It's a load of drabble, really, and probably doesn't even make sense in some parts. But oh well. :D**

**Have a happy and safe holiday!  
>-Scottie.<strong>

Lori pushed the door to 5-0 Headquarters open, waving over her shoulder at the four smiling people behind her.  
>"Merry Christmas, guys! Have a great day!" Lori smiled to herself as she walked to her car, unlocking it and sitting in the seat. Sighing, she started up the car, pulling out onto the busy street.<p>

She turned on the radio and smiled again as the familiar Christmas tunes came on. Turning the radio up, she sung along to the happy tunes of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Santa Claus is Coming to Town.

The smiled didn't leave Lori's face as she pulled into her garage, switching the ignition off and stepping out of the car. The sun had set long ago, and the houses around Lori's already lit up as their Christmas light flashed in various exciting patterns.

Stepping inside her house, and pulling the sliding door closed behind her, Lori flicked the light-switch on and placed her bag on the side table near the door, pulling her gun from the holster on her hip. She carefully put it in the drawer by the front door, hiding it from any unsuspecting person that dared to break in.

Walking past the TV, Lori turned it on, flicking to a news channel before walking upstairs and changing into a pair of old tracksuit pants and a baggy shirt. She pulled her hair from it's usual tight ponytail and shook her head, all traces of the tough case they had just completed eradicated from her mind.

Walking back downstairs, Lori jumped onto the couch, immediately swapping the news channel for a sappy Christmas movie.

Lori loved this time of the year. Everyone was happy as the time to be with family and friends drew nearer and nearer, and the time to give gifts and watch as faces lit up with joy as each present was unwrapped.

But this year, she was alone. After being assigned by the Governor to the 5-0 taskforce, she left everything behind – all her friends back in Homeland security were probably busy celebrating with each other, without so much as a phone call to Lori. They had probably forgotten her, and forgotten all the fun they had had together in the past. Sighing, Lori fell asleep on the couch, these thoughts on her mind, the happiness she usually had at Christmas immediately gone.

H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50

A tapping noise roused Lori from sleep. She immediately regretted moving, though, because she had fallen asleep in an awkward position on the couch, her neck aching from being stretched all night as she moved her head. Blinking a few times, Lori jumped backwards as she saw a person standing a few feet away from her.

"Calm down, Lori. It's just me." Lori wiped the sleep from her eyes as they finally focused.  
>"Steve? What are you doing here?" She frowned, and Steve smiled slightly, his eyes twinkling.<br>"It's Christmas." Steve said simply.  
>"Oh, thanks," Lori replied sarcastically. "I had no idea." Rolling his eyes, Steve continued.<br>"No one should be alone on Christmas." Lori smiled slightly.  
>"What about Danny?"<br>"He's with Grace. Rachel and Stan invited him over for the day to celebrate with Grace."  
>"Chin and Kono?" Lori wasn't necessarily trying to get Steve to leave, despite how much it may have seemed like it.<br>"Big family celebration." She nodded. It was fair enough, their family was huge, and so they'd all be celebrating together.  
>"Ah. Exciting." Steve smiled again. "I have a question," Lori began. Steve walked over towards her and sat on the couch.<br>"Shoot." Steve gestured with his hands.  
>"How'd you get in?"<br>"I knocked."  
>"I was asleep." Lori stated. "Generally if someone doesn't answer the door, you assume they're not available."<br>"I saw you through the window."  
>"And you took that as an open invitation?" Steve grinned and nodded.<br>"Yep." Lori laughed slightly.  
>"What time is it?" Lori asked, craning her already sore neck to look at the wall clock at the other side of the room.<br>"Time to get a watch." Lori smiled mockingly.  
>"You're hilarious." Steve winked and stood up again, reaching for Lori's hand. Lori resisted, not wanting to get up.<br>"Come on," Steve prompted, pulling a little harder.  
>"Why?" Lori asked, leaning back into the corner of the couch.<br>"Because I said. Now get up and get dressed and meet me back down here in ten minutes." Lori raised an eyebrow and Steve copied her. "Go."  
>"Fine," Lori replied, finally allowing Steve to pull her up.<br>"Ten minutes."  
>"I heard you," Lori called over her shoulder to the grinning Steve.<p>

H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50

Just less than ten minutes later, Lori walked back downstairs, changed, hair tied back and teeth brushed. She had pulled on a pair of shorts and a shirt that had been at the top of her pile of clean clothes on her dressing table.  
>"You ready to go?" Steve asked, grinning.<br>"All things considered, no. So let's go." Lori smiled and picked up her phone and purse from where she had pulled them from her bag the night before. She chose to leave her gun hidden where it was – if anything was to happen during the day, Steve's ninja reflexes would come to the rescue.

"Are you actually going to tell me what you have planned?" Lori asked as Steve led her to his truck, parked out front.  
>"Nope."<br>"Didn't think so." Steve winked at Lori, and in return, she rolled her eyes, looking out the window for any indication as to where they were headed.

H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50

A few hours later, and Lori found herself sitting on the beach, completely full from the large amounts of tasty food Steve had forced onto her plate.  
>"So," he said, looking out at the water, breaking the once comfortable silence.<br>"So what?" Lori replied, glancing at his face.  
>"How come you were planning on spending today alone?" He asked, now turning away from the water.<br>"Well, after I left Homeland Security to join 5-0, my friends all just forgot about me, I guess. I haven't heard from them in months." There was a pause.

"What about your family?" Steve asked. Lori felt a tinge of sadness fall over her heart. She didn't normally talk about her family, but she felt that Steve was only asking out of concern for the fact she had been planning on spending Christmas day alone.  
>"My family," she began, taking a deep breath. "Well, they're in a safer place now."<br>"What do you mean?" Steve asked, turning to face her.  
>"I mean that they've all passed away." A frown fell across Lori's face as Steve's face dropped. Evidently, he had not realised that this was the reason for her lack of family contacts.<br>"Lori, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry." She shook her head, eyes downcast.  
>"It's alright."<br>"Do you want to talk about it?" Steve asked after a long pause.

It had been a long time since Lori had spoken to anyone about the death of her family. The last person she had spoken to had been her Uncle – the one person she trusted and knew after her parents died. He was the last relative she had on this Earth. Until he died in a car crash less than a week after the rest of her family.

"I was just finishing my Senior year. Halfway through my Biology final, I was pulled from the hall and taken to the police station." Lori took a deep breath and looked up, unsure as to whether or not she should continue. Her eyes met Steve's, and she saw a genuine look of concern in his eyes, his face filled with sympathy. "They told me that my parents had been killed in a bank robbery. My dad had been helping an injured boy, and they shot him. My mom was shot shortly afterwards when she tried to stop them shooting my dad. My older brother was there, too. He worked at the bank, and when the robbers came in, they shot all the staff. He had no chance of ever surviving." Lori paused again, feeling tears in her eyes, threatening to spill over. Steve silently slid across to her, placing a hand over her shoulder, gently reassuring her. "My Uncle was my last relative left on Earth. He was killed in a car crash a week later." The tears finally spilled over, rolling down her cheeks. "From then on, I was alone. I took to doing anything and everything that made me forget the world. I put all my effort into studying at College. I only slept for about 3 hours every night so that I could avoid the nightmares. I was a mess. Then my ex came along. He was nice. Supposedly cared about me. Then I found out he really didn't, and when I left him, he threatened to kill me. So I came to Hawaii. Started life again, basically." She looked up to Steve, who was smiling sadly.  
>"I didn't know," he said simply.<br>"I've moved on, for the most part." Steve smiled.  
>"Always remember that you're never alone," Steve said, pulling Lori into a hug. He held it for a long time as Lori closed her eyes, letting her bottled up emotions disappear, knowing that there was nothing more she could do about her past, except for putting it behind her.<p>

A few minutes later, Steve pulled away and Lori wiped her eyes with the palm of her hand. Standing up and stretching, Steve began to speak.  
>"But, today is Christmas, and this is not what we need to do or speak about today." Steve gestured to Lori's tear stained face. Offering her a hand, he pulled her to her feet. "Just wait until this evening. I'll show you something you'll never forget."<p>

H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50 H50

From that point on, Lori spent the day smiling, laughing and enjoying herself way more than she would have had she been home alone all day. As the sun began to set, they arrived at Steve's house, where he led Lori out to his backyard and tied a blindfold around her eyes whilst ducking various flailing limbs, trying to get free of the blindfold, and of the grip that Steve had of her wrists.  
>"What are you doing?"<br>"Do you trust me?" Steve asked, smiling.  
>"No. Why do you ask?" Lori barely had time to finish her sentence before Steve picked her up, one arm under her knees, the other on her back. He then clambered up over the balcony and onto the highest point of the roof. Setting Lori down next to him, he carefully untied the blindfold from around her eyes, and smiled. The sun had set, and from the roof, the two had a clear view of the sky.<br>"And tah-dah!" Steve's smile grew as Lori's face lit up at the view. From his roof, all the stars were visible in the sky, and the sound of carolling could be heard in the background. A light breeze drifted across the two 5-0 team members sitting on the roof, and Lori felt a small shiver run down her spine as she took in the beautiful sight.  
>"Wow, Steve, this is amazing!"<br>"Isn't it?" Steve replied, still smiling. This was one of the best views in all of Hawaii, in his opinion, and it wasn't just because he had grown up with the view.

The two sat in comfortable silence for a while, gazing up at the stars, lost in thought.  
>"Steve?" Lori whispered, afraid that if she spoke much louder, the atmosphere would be broken instantly.<br>"Yeah?" Steve replied, looking to the side to look at Lori.  
>"Thank you so much for today."<br>"It's no problem," Steve replied. "As I said, no one deserves to be alone on Christmas. Especially not someone in my team." Lori smiled, and looked up at Steve, a look of genuine thanks spreading across her face. "But for now," Steve continued, placing an arm across her shoulder and pulling her to lie down looking straight up into the night sky. "Have a look at that." Steve pointed at a cluster of stars, and began talking about them. Steve kept his arm resting over Lori's shoulder as she settled in closer to Steve, her head resting against the side of his as he spoke.

**FIN.**

**AN: Don't forget to review! Return the love, review for me? :)  
>Have a great holiday.<br>-Scottie**


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